Bonum Certa Men Certa

Media Alert: Spokespeople of the EPO Are Lying to Journalists

The EPO is having another 'Clinton moment' (Lewinsky)

Clinton did not have...



Summary: A call for journalists to be more sceptical of what EPO officials and spokespeople tell them, for there is a pattern of deception which compromises accurate reporting

WE WERE rather astonished if not flabbergasted by a response from the EPO (spokespeople presumably), sent for the The Register to publish the other day. We were going to post a point-by-point rebuttal*, but now, as it turns out, Kieren McCarthy already issued a sort of correction. It goes like this:



European Patent Office still in nosedive as union denies reaching deal



[...]

A SUEPO representative vigorously denies the union is prepared to sign the agreement however, telling us that the most recent document the EPO presented still contains "massive flaws" and that the union is still some way from agreeing.

Subsequently, the EPO got back in contact with us to point out that there had been a "misunderstanding" during our conversation over SUEPO's willingness to sign the document. A similar misunderstanding also seemingly occurred when we reported that the revised version of the "request" to EPO management would remove direct criticism of Battistelli.

[...]

With both sides seemingly at an impasse, the board of the EPO's administrative council met twice this month to discuss how to resolve the issue, and once with the president and his staff.

When their solution – an external review of the disciplinary actions – was rejected by Battistelli, they resolved to take it to the full council in March. In particular, a draft of the board's formal response specifically referenced the fact that the management team had failed to sign an MoU with its main union.

Soon after we reported the contents of that response, the EPO told us it was close to signing an MoU. After we reported that, the union strongly denied any such agreement was forthcoming.

What is the truth? The answer is that there are multiple truths and that by reporting on heated negotiations, we poured gasoline on an already flaming wreck.

One thing is for sure: at its March 16-17 meeting in Munich, the EPO's administrative council will need to do something if it wishes to avoid a full meltdown at the organization.


Well, all the pressure is on Battistelli, not on the Council, so he will probably resign rather than be officially sacked, just to make it all look "nice". Then he'll argue about how much money he's entitled to. The moral of the story (and lesson to The Register and others) is, don't trust anything that EPO PR people tell, no matter how persuasively. They have been repeatedly caught lying to the press and we covered examples of this. They not only lie to journalists but also to EPO staff. They even SLAPP activists. _____ * No need for sources on this. I know enough of internal EPO affairs to do this rebuttal, but mostly lacking the time and still recovering from illness and migraines caused by lack of basic/sufficient sleep.

“It takes a long time to turn a big country around.”

--Bill Clinton

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

LLM Slopfarm: A Site's Last Incarnation Before Throwing in the Towel, Going Offline Permanently
A lot of coverage that claims to be about Finland is chatbot-generated nonsense or poorly-plagiarised work
LLM Slop (Lots of It Spewed Out by Microsoft) Versus Linux
Microsoft is a very, very evil company. It doesn't mind destroying the Web if there's a chance it'll make a buck in the process or mess up people's brains (in Microsoft's favour).
Slopfarms (Sites That Only Ever Publish LLM Slop) Are Killing Google News
pair of slopfarms still propped up by Google News
Microsoft's Serial Strangler's Law Firm Has a Long History of Fronting for People Who Do Bad and/or Illegal Things
Whose terrible idea was this?
Links 25/03/2025: Clownflare’s Slop and Bounties on Fake Patents
Links for the day
 
Links 26/03/2025: Healthcare Cuts and Turkey's Own "2025 Project" (Culling Opposition)
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical Pays IDG to Spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)
this seems a tad exploitative and reminds us of the time Novell kept telling companies that using anything other than SUSE was dangerous
Gemini Links 26/03/2025: GTD, Zenshuu, and Geminispace Community
Links for the day
Links 26/03/2025: Media's Failures, Arrests of Journalists, Limitations of End-to-End Encryption
Links for the day
Novell and Microsoft Apologist/Booster Bruce Byfield Writing About the FSF is a Recipe for Problems
Totally not shoehorning some agenda
Looking Forward to the Fall of UPC and Revocation of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement, Which Was Always Illegal and Unconstitutional
We'll try to keep abreast of any progress in this case
Slopwatch: Google News, LinuxSecurity.com, and the General Demise of the Web
many supposed or so-called "news" pages are just spewed out by some chatbots (or tools which help plagiarise original articles without getting caught; detection gets harder)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 25, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Links 25/03/2025: Terrace Workbench and Spellcheck in LibreOffice on FreeBSD
Links for the day
Let Them Eat 'Apps'
Go Appless
Linux Runs Almost Everything, But They Almost Never Tell You This (No Marketing Budget)
Only about 1% (or at most 2%) of the Linux Foundation's budget goes towards Linux; a lot is routed towards Bill Gates and Microsoft promotion
Free Software Community Folks Are Closer Together Than the Cliques and Opportunists Rallying Around "Open Source" (Openwashing, Marketing, Conniving)
Generally speaking, freedom-loving geeks learn to reject morbid elements and trolls, who end up expelled
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) Might Get 'Forked' Soon
Someone who read our series has already taken a leading role
IBM Layoffs in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2025
Should Free software people trust such a secretive company?
Roku Will 'Lead' Attempts to Abolish the Illegal and Unconstitutional Unified Patent Court (UPC), Which Represents EPO Corruption and Lobbyism Spreading Upwards Inside the EU
When bribery buys policies and courts, even illegal policies and courts
Growing Poverty Rates in the United States of America (or Elsewhere) Beneficial to GNU/Linux Adoption
Toxic politics around the world, including the US, may mean weaker economies
European Patent Office (EPO) Illegally Turning to Slop Behind Closed Doors, Staff Objects to This Hidden Catastrophe
Who stands to gain from all this and at whose expense?
Gemini Links 25/03/2025: Relaxation, Literary "Movements", and Gemini Mentions
Links for the day
After US Government Funding Cuts the Centralisation of the Web (Especially Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt) is at Risk
They try to pull the plug on open protocols with decent encryption available (unless it is outsourced to third parties)
Links 25/03/2025: Putin Sends Children to Battle, 23andMe Drowns as People's Highly Personal DNA Data Floats
Links for the day
When Microsoft Folks Who Literally Strangle Women Try to Strangle Microsoft Critics
Speaking to Court staff yesterday, they too are shocked about those SLAPPs
Martinique: Windows Down to All-Time Low
we cannot expect Windows to ever recover
Anticipated in 2018: Lilie James & Location tracking, Googlists complained
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 24, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, March 24, 2025
IBM (and Red Hat) on a Fast Train to Nowhere
What is the future of Fedora when IBM keeps removing its leadership?
Press Reports Say Almost 10,000 Western IBMers Laid Off
We've been trying to verify/corroborate this somehow
Gemini Links 24/03/2025: "Live Off the Land" and Life Without YouTube
Links for the day
Planet Ubuntu (or Ubuntu Planet) is LLM Slop
Reading chatbots' output is bad use of time
Days Ago yewtu.be Found a Workaround That Made Invidious Work Again. Then Google Broke All the Instances (Again).
"Youtube changed something again, so if a video does not play, it's because of that."
The European Patent Office (EPO) is Slowly Killing Its Own Staff; All It Cares About Is Money
The Office hasn't been run by a scientist for about 18 years already
Links 24/03/2025: US Detaining Innocent People, F-35 Contracts Suspended Due to Hostilities
Links for the day
Cellphones (Mobile Phones) in Classrooms
A recent study confirmed that people's intelligence has dropped in recent years/decades
Is the FSF Being 'Trolled' by Microsofters Pushing C# (Microsoft)?
Who stands to benefit from training people to use and spread Microsoft?
Matthew J. Garrett is "Former Microsoft Researcher", According to Microsoft's Serial Strangler
Their argument is something along the lines of, "what Roy published damaged my career prospects, so I want Roy to pay me...
Links 24/03/2025: Political Catchup and Environmental Concerns
Links for the day
Windows Has Now Fallen to Rather Ridiculous 3% "Market Share" in Iraq (Windows Was Measured at 100% Back in 2010)
Iraq is not a place where Windows can make a comeback
Gemini Links 24/03/2025: Working With Music and Unconscious Influence
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 23, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, March 23, 2025